Romania’s telecommunications operator Digi, controlled by local entrepreneur Zoltan Teszari, announced in a note to investors on August 2 that it has signed a €150mn purchase agreement with the British firm Lorca JVCO to buy Nowo Communications, the fourth largest mobile and landline telecommunications operator in Portugal.

The Romanian company, controlled by local entrepreneur Zoltan Teszari, took recently a number of steps in line with its strategy of expanding on foreign markets, but also at home.

The completion of the latest transaction, sealed between the parties on August 1, is subject to competition clearance.

Nowo has 270,000 mobile and 130,000 landline customers. The Portuguese operator holds spectrum licenses in 1800 Mhz, 2600 MHz and 3600 MHz frequency bands. 

As well as Nowo deal, Digi also signed a long-term infrastructure-sharing contract with Spanish Telefonica (as a bridge until it to rolls out its own mobile network for which the spectrum licenses were already purchased) and is launching operations in Belgium in partnership with Citymesh, part of IT group Cegeka. 

The expansion was based on the acquisition of spectrum licenses in Spain and Belgium. 

Digi Spain Telecom, the Spanish subsidiary of Digi Communications concluded last December a spectrum transfer contract for the acquisition of spectrum licenses providing for the use of a set of frequency blocks from Xfera Moviles (part of the MasMovil Spain Group) for €120mn. 

In Belgium, Digi won the rights to use some frequencies in the mobile spectrum through the association with Citymesh NV in 2022, as a result of participating in the auction organised by the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT).

In Romania, Digi Communications announced on May 27 that it has reached an agreement to take indirect majority control of local mobile operator Telekom Romania Mobile.

Under the new agreement announced by Digi, West Network Invest, an investment vehicle majority-owned by Digi Romania (DIGI’s national branch) and minority-owned by Clever Media group, will take over a 99.99% stake in Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (Telekom Romania Mobile) from OTE.

Digi has a market capitalisation of RON6.3bn (€1.3bn) after the price of its shares rose by 79% y/y. The dividend yield for the part of the 2023 profit disbursed to shareholders was, however, only 1.9%.